Treatment programs
disorders treated
Obsessive Compulsive disorder
Quick facts
Have you ever "touched wood", double-checked you turned off the stove, washed your hands a second time just for good measure or been unable to stop a tune playing in your head? Well, approximately 2% of the population carry out such behaviours in a ritualistic and compulsive manner every day. These behaviours and the associated thoughts can penetrate their every movement, creating severe levels of anxiety and untenable living conditions for them and for those around them.
Obsessive compulsive disorder is an anxiety based disorder from which people suffer from recurrent, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and behaviours or rituals (compulsions) which they feel they cannot control.
Obsessions are recurrent, intrusive and persistent ideas, thoughts, images or impulses which enter the person's mind. Compulsions are rituals of repetitive and apparently purposeful behaviours which are performed according to certain rules or in a very standard fashion. Rituals are designed to produce or prevent some future event or situation.
the Symptoms
The majority of obsessional thoughts are limited to the themes of dirt and contamination, aggression, sex, religion and the order and arrangement of objects,
Compulsions can range from cleaning to washing, checking, collecting or hoarding, repeating, counting and organising.
Although adults realise in part that these obsessions and compulsions are senseless, they have great difficulty stopping them. They often cleverly hide their OCD successfully from family and friends for many years as they often find their obsessions and compulsions quite embarrassing.
For the individuals who are more open about their OCD, the disorder can affect the entire family as they are drawn into the ritualising. Interestingly, some families may find these behaviours as "normal" since there is evidence that OCD may be genetically inherited.
People with OCD often suffer from clinical depression or panic attacks. Unfortunately, if untreated, the symptoms may persist for years. Occasionally symptoms do change, but generally, they do not just disappear.
Further reading
- http://www.ocdresource.com/resource/whatsocd+main.html
- http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/ocdfacts.cfm
Treatment for OCD
Generally, the person with OCD will attempt to avoid obsessions by keeping away from the situations or objects which trigger them. When obsessions occur, rituals usually result with the reward of temporary anxiety relief or the expectation that anxiety will worsen if the ritual does not occur. Avoidance however prevents exposure to the feared thoughts and compulsions. Therefore this prevents the discovery that if the person stops these behaviours what they fear occurring does not happen.
Treatment involves exposing the OCD sufferer to the feared stimuli whilst encouraging them to block any behaviours which prevent or terminate the exposure. At the same time, re-appraisal of the fears is encouraged so that patients discover that the things which they fear do not actually happen.
Exposure and Response Prevention
Generally the OCD sufferer has intrusive thoughts that generate anxiety, discomfort or the urge to carry out a ritual. Performing the ritual results in a decrease in anxiety or discomfort so that performing the ritual is actually reinforcing through it's ability to reduce these negative feelings.
The Anxiety Reducing Effect
Engaging in a ritual brings about an immediate and dramatic decrease in the level of discomfort and urge to ritualise. Therefore the person quickly learns that discomfort may be reduced by performing the ritual.
The more anxiety, the more the ritualising.
The aim of therapy is to confront the anxiety without switching off. The process of therapy involves a deliberate exposure to a feared or anxiety provoking situation and the prevention of any response by the person.
Prevention means that the person with OCD with the help of the therapist voluntarily does not engage in the ritual. Research has demonstrated that the urge to ritualise or level of discomfort declines over time.
Urge Discomfort
In repeating the process of exposure combined with response (ritual) prevention, the end result is one of perhaps mild discomforts when confronted with triggers of the rituals. However, the most important change is that the individual is now in a position to control the problem rather than having it control him or her.
Perth Clinic Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Therapy Program
The aim of therapy is to confront the anxiety without switching off. The process of therapy involves a deliberate exposure to a feared or anxiety provoking situation and the prevention of any response by the person.
Prevention means that the person with OCD with the help of the therapist voluntarily does not engage in the ritual.
Research has demonstrated that the urge to ritualise or level of
The obsessive compulsive disorder treatment programme has been designed to be included with the two week intensive cognitive behavioural therapy programme or to be conducted on an individual basis with people.
It consists of a total of fourteen sessions of two hour modules which are aimed to provide a therapy programme for people with obsessive compulsive disorder.